Business Conditions Before and After the Tohoku - Pacific Ocean Earthquake

Discontinuity in the Data

In the Tankan (Short-Term Economic Survey of Enterprises in Japan), there is a discontinuity between the time-series data through the December 2003 survey and those in and after the March 2004 survey. This is due to the change in the size classification from a "number of employees" basis to an "enterprises' capital" basis and also due to major revisions to sample enterprises in and after the March 2004 survey. Data on the pre-revision ("number of employees") basis and those on the post-revision ("enterprises' capital") basis of the December 2003 survey are both available on the Bank's web site to enable users to see the difference between them in terms of aggregated results. Time-series data in and after the March 2009 survey are also available on the"BOJ Time-Series Data Search."